Chapter 26
The Ball jars stood on shelves along one wall, their blue-green surfaces shrouded in dust, years thick. It was possible to look into the murky liquid in each and see something floating inside. But Beth couldn’t imagine the contents were something as innocent as pickles, tomatoes, or beets; instead, she fantasized that embryos floated within—an entire freak show of abortions and miscarriages.
Abbott should have been among them, the most beautiful and freakish of them all. Someone had saved him, because he was so beautiful. He was as beautiful as nightshade, his deformities and evil all inside.
She lay back, removing her stare from the shelves. She looked up at the ceiling and tried to ignore the throbbing in her fingers.
Fingers no longer there.
She had read once about phant
